


Gym

by iluvaqt



Series: His Best Girl [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 13:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4102867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity feels what it's like to keep up with agents and super-soldiers. A little girl bonding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gym

[ ](http://s13.photobucket.com/user/micki34/media/Banners/IMG_74361.jpg.html)

::: ::: :::

Digg had started her in basic defense and strength training. She could happily say she could lift her own body weight now without collapsing like cooked spaghetti. Training with Maria though was a different ball game.

The woman had 3-inches on her, but they were a similar build and there was really only Maria or Natasha. Felicity found the other woman scary intimidating. She was so poised and quiet. Felicity didn’t dare initiate conversation much less ask if she would train her. She was a former assassin and a super-spy. Natasha probably had a hundred better things to do than pander to a fitness novice. Besides, Maria had offered when she’d seen Felicity struggling through a sparring session with Happy one afternoon.

“Another run through and I think we’re done for today?”

Felicity looked at those parallel bars and and wished she could burn them to ash. Although Steve probably wouldn’t appreciate it, he used those every day and truthfully, she loved watching him use them. He had a very tight set of buns. Her mind’s eye drifted to the rings across the gym, oh boy, she was feeling a bit light-headed picturing his shoulder muscles move while he used those.

A weighted ball hit her in the stomach with a whoosh that knocked her flat on her back and expelled all the air from her lungs.

“Sorry,” Maria said breathlessly. “I thought you were ready, you were looking right at me.”

Felicity took her offered hand and sat up with a wince. She could handle more physical punishment with each passing day, but taking a 15kg ball to the chest was going to leave an impression.

“So you and Steve?” she asked casually. “I read a bit of his file when we found him. He had an old flame, one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D. Since waking up he’s always struck me as the focused on the mission, lone ranger type. And he’s a little intimidating. How’d you get past that?”

Felicity pushed herself to standing and straightened her top. She brushed back the sweaty strands of hair from her face and took a second to get her chest moving right again. “Urgh, my fault for losing focus. Steve and I, honestly sometimes I think I’m in dream. Although dreams don’t sucker punch you quite like that.”

“Sorry,” Maria said with a wince in sympathy. “Do you want to go to medical?”

Felicity shook her head. “I can stand and I can breathe. Nothing’s broken,” she said, gingerly feeling her ribs. Actually, she was starting to breathe normally again already.

“When we first met I totally ran my mouth off like a fangirl. But later I heard my uncle in my head, telling me that all these war heroes and servicemen are just like the best of us. They wanted to protect and serve, they didn’t do it for accolades. And whether they got medals or whether they came home to a hero’s welcome, or had a quiet honorable discharges because of permanent injury, each one of them deserves our gratitude and respect. So I decided to tell the fangirl to take a hike and treat Steve like the nice guy he was, with a healthy dose of respect thrown in. It’s working in my favor so far.”

Maria grinned at the picture she’d seen this morning of Steve and Felicity in the kitchen making waffles for the gang. “I’m certainly seeing a different side to him. You’re good for him.”

Felicity beamed at her. “Thank you. And if that was a pep talk to soften me up for the rope climb, I’m so going to find a way you get you back.”

Maria laughed out right. “Hey, I’m taking the punishment right along with you.”

“And you have at least a couple years training on me, pity for the newbie here.”

Maria shook her head. “Felicity, if I had the pleasure of training newbies like you when I first started at S.H.I.E.L.D, I might not have worked so hard to get out of mentoring.”

Shaking her head at the obvious props, even though she knew Maria wouldn’t offer empty praise, Felicity eyed the ceiling rope with dread. “I hated gym in school.”

“So, did I,” a voice added over her shoulder. “But for difference reasons, I think. I could never make the top without my airways starting to close, and trust me, no amount of willpower helps your grip there.”

Watching him grab the rope and start climbing with the ease of a seasoned athlete, Felicity managed to pick up her jaw off the floor and follow suit. Ignoring the snickering of Maria behind her. She suddenly found a hidden reserve of energy. And it had nothing to do with the man across from her. Nothing at all.


End file.
